Valentino Rossi and his team (Uccio Salucci and Andrea Ceccato) had fun at the 6 Ore di Vallelunga endurance race, but weren’t very lucky,the amateur drivers were able to take a third place podium in the GT class and an eleventh overall.
Mechanical problems and a fire on the Ferrari 430 GT prepared by Kessel Racing stopped the team from taking first place in their series.
Valentino Rossi, was behind the wheel of the Ferrari in the first hour and the first five laps were done behind the safety car due to heavy fog, but at the end of the first hour the team was second and had the fastest lap among the GT3 cars.
Ceccato and then Uccio would take the wheel and were able to rise to third overall with a three lap advantage and half the race to go.
In the penultimate hour the Ferrari had start up problems and with Uccio behind the wheel the car had to pushed.
Taking eight minutes to replace the starter motor before the final stint, Rossi took off with a seven lap delay trying to catch up, but 10 minutes before the checkered flag, a fire broke out ending the team’s chances.
“I was a little frightened,” said Rossi “because in a car you’re closed in, so I unbuckled my safety bel,t but I couldn’t see the handle to open the door .
It was just a moment, then the fire guys arrived and they opened the door.
It’s a shame, if we didn’t have these problems we could have won.
”Five times Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro with Elio Marchetti and Carlo Graziani, won the GT3 class driving a Corvette GT and the absolute victory went to the Lola Judd Team, class LMP2 withThomas Biagi, Filippo Francioni, Edoardo Piscopo.